Folding door aligner



Jan- 10 1961 MGFERRELL HoLLANswoRTH 2,957,322

FOLDING DOOR ALIGNER Filed March 2l, 1958 AVIRA Iulllm flL United States Patent FOLDING DOR ALIGNER McFerrell Hollansworth, Pittsburgh, Pa., assigner to McKinney Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania Fired Mar. 21, 195s, ser, No. 723,021

4 claims. (cris- 1) This invention relates to folding doors, and more particularly to aligners for holding their free vertical edges in correct position while the doors are closed.

When a folding door is closed, its free vertical edge sometimes does not hang straight or line up with a cooperating folding door. This may be due to the doors not hanging true, or to slight warping. In the latter case itjis impossible to bring the meeting edges into alignment from top to bottom, but they can be aligned in the area where misalignment would be most conspicuous, which is Vat knob level. This invention is concerned with a'device for improving alignment as much as possible.

It is among the objects of this invention to provide a folding door aligner, which is of simple and inexpensive construction, which'can easily be attached to the meeting edges of folding doors, which can be attached to the doors at any desired elevation, and which will not interfere with opening and closing of the doors.

In accordance with this invention, the aligner is formed from two principal members, a tongue member and a socket member.y These are adapted to be attached by screws or the like to the meeting edges of a pair of folding doors or to one door and the side of the adjoining door frame. The two members will lit together when the door or doors are closed. The socket member has a recess with a vertical wall curving inwardly about 90 from one edge of the recess and then slanting out to its opposite edge. The tongue member has substantially the same shape as the recess in order to fit into it. The two members are designed to be mounted so that their curved surfaces will separate faster than their slanting surfaces as a door or doors are folded on being opened.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a front view of a pair of closed folding doors;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line II-II of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken on the line III-III of Fig. 2;

Figs. 4 and 5 are views of the exposed sides of the socket and tongue members. respectively; and

Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal section taken ou the line VI-VI of Fig. 1.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, two cooperating folding doors are shown, each of which is formed from a pair of rigid panels l and 2. The panels are rather thick, being in the neighborhood of an inch for example. The two panels forming each door are hinged together by any suitable form of hinges 3 secured to the panels. The outer panel 2 of each door is pivotally connected at top and bottom to the door frame by suitable pivot means 4 and 5, which may be like those shown in my copending patent application Serial No. 696,367, led November 14, 1957, now Patent 2,882,962. As in that patent the upper ends of the upper and lower bearings B are slidable toward and away from the nearest side of the door frame but are urged away from that side by coil springs S so that the two doors will be held close together when closed. Each inner panel 1 is supported at its upper inner corner by an upwardly extending hanger or guide member 6 that isr slidable back and forth ina horizontal track 7 secured to the top of the doorway 8 along the top of the closed door. When the door is opened by pulling on a knob 9 or the like, or by pushing on its opposite side, the door will pivot at the guide member, which will move outwardly along the track and compel the door to fold. While the doors are closed, their free edges substantially meet at the center of the doorway. With the door hung as shown in my copending application, the meeting edges of the doors will actually yengage at against each other. `It is a feature of this invention that the meeting edges of the closed doors are held in as good alignment with each other as is possible under the circumstances. Ac cordingly, an aligner is mounted between the two doors for moving one or the other ofl them forward or backward slightly relative to the other. Half of the aligner is attached to each door. One half of its consists of, a socket member that is attached to the free edge of one of the doors after the door has been mortised to receive it. This socket member S consists of a short strip of sheet metal, generally brass, that has been deformed in a die to provide it with a vertically elongated recess 11 surrounded by a at marginal area 12. Above and below the recess the marginal area is provided with holes 13 (Fig. 4) for screws 14 that fasten it to the door. The recess has a generally rectangular shape with rounded ends when viewed from its open side, as shown in Fig; 4; but its vertical wall is curved inwardly about from the rear edgeof the recess and then slants in a substantially fiat plane out to its front edge to produce the shape in cross section shown in Fig. 2. The front edge portion of the sheet metal strip is turned back perpendicular to the adjoining at marginal area to form a very narrow flange 15'that extends vertically along the front corner of the door to help position the socket member initially and also to avoid an exposed sharp metal edge along the socket member. The other half of the aligner is a tongue member T; which may be solid and molded from a suitable plastic if desired. It is provided with two vertically spaced counter shrunk holes 17 (Fig. 5) which receive screws 18 that fasten it ilatagainst the free edge of the other door directly opposite to the socket member. As shown in Figs. 2 and 5, the tongue member has substantially the same shape as recess 11 of the socket member, in view of which the two members can t together snugly when the doors are closed. The tongue, however, is a little shorter than the recess so that it does not have to be positioned at a precise height on the door in order to fit in the recess. y

When the two doors start to open, in response to pulling on their knosb or pushing on their opposite sides, the outer corners of the doors will start to turn on their pivots and the hinges connecting the panels will start to move forward and fold as indicated in broken lines in Fig. 6. This pulls the guide members 6 outwardly away from each other along track 7 until the two panels of each door project forward in substantially parallel relation as also is shown in broken lines in Fig. 6. When the doors first start to fold, their meeting edges swing backward slightly and simultaneously tilt apart as the two doors are pushed bodily in opposite directions against springs S by the pressure of the front corners of their meeting edges against each other. The rear corners of the meeting edges separate before and faster than their front corners. It is partly because of this condition that the tongue and recess have the particular shape shown and described herein. Their shape permits them to separate easily with- Patented Jan. 10, 1961 out binding, which otherwise might occur if they were semicircular in horizontal section. Another reason for their shape is that it permits more badly warped doors than otherwise to be pulled into alignment when the doors are closed, as the slanting surfaces `of the tongue and socket can slide laterally across each other.

When a door is warped a little, this aligner generally will be located at about knob level so that the doors will be held in alignment in that conspicuous area by means of the aligner and at the top by hangers 6, even though their lower ends may remain slightly out of line. In some cases, such as when the doors are straight and misalignment is due only to one or both of them not hanging true, it may be found desirable to place the aligner near the bottom of the doors. By aligning their lower ends they will be swung into alignment throughout their height. One of the advantages of this aligner is that it can be quickly mounted in place at any desired height on the doors.

Although the aligner has been described as used between two cooperating folding doors, it will be understood that it also is useful when only one folding door is used. If such a door does not hang right, one of the aligner members can be Secured to its free edge, and the other aligner member fastened to the adjoining side of the door frame in a position where the two members will t together when the door is closed and force the door to swing slightly forward or backward as required.

According to the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principle of my invention and have illustrated and described what I now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, I desire to have it understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specically illustrated and described.

I claim:

1. An aligner for holding the free vertical edgelof a folding sliding door in alignment with an object substantially engaged by that edge while the door is closed, said aligner comprising tongue and socket members adapted to be secured to said door edge and adjoining object and to removably fit together between them, the socket member having a recess with a vertical wall curving inwardly about'90 from one edge of the recess and then slanting out to its opposite edge, and the tongue member having substantially the same shape as said recess to lit therein, the two members being designed to be mounted so that their curved surfaces will separate faster than their slanting surfaces as the door is folded to open it.

4 i i" `2. An aligner for holding the free vertical edge of a folding sliding door in alignment with an object substantially engaged by that edge while the door is closed, said aligner comprising tongue and socket members adapted to be secured to said door edge and adjoining object and to removably tit together between them, the socket member being made of a strip of s heet metal deformed to provide it with a recess surrounded by a flat marginal area and having front and rear edges, the recess having a vertical wall curving inwardly about from its rear edge and then slanting in a substantially at plane out to its front edge, and the tongue being a solid member shaped substantially the same as said recess to fit therein, the two members being designed to be mounted so that their curved surfaces will separate faster than their slanting surfaces as the door is folded to open it.

3. A door aligner according to claim 2, in which the front edge of said sheet metal strip is turned back at a right angle to said at marginal area to form a narrow vertical flange. v

4. An aligner for holding the meeting inner edges of a pair of cooperating folding sliding doors in alignment with each other while the doors are closed and in engagement with each other, said alignerV comprising tongue and socket members adapted to be secured to said meeting edges and to removably t together between them,'the socket member having a recess with a vertical Wall curved inwardly about 90 from one edge of the recess and then slanting out to its opposite edge, and the tongue member being shaped substantially the same as said recess to tit therein, the .two members being designed to be mounted so that their curved surfaces will separate faster than their slanting surfaces as the doors are folded t0 open them. L

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,334,412 Stevens Mar. 23, 1920 1,437,923 Taillefer Dec. 5, 1922 2,299,573 Fairhurst Oct. 20, 1942 2,300,265 Siess Oct. 27, 1942 2,387,187 Smith Oct. 16, 1945 2,720,308 Howell Oct. 1l, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 23,030 Great Britain 1906 399,375 Great Britain ----2 Oct. 5, 1933 

